Scene Building - AECP

Just finished the last class of my Level 1 courses in the Altenew Educators Certification Program.  This class was taught by Nichol Spohr and was 6 separate lessons on how to make the most of our crafting stash and create unique scenes for our cards.

For my first card, shown above, I used a photo of an African sunset as inspiration.  I used several colors of ink and a circle mask to ink the background.  Then I reversed the mask so I could ink blend the sun.  I also used my finger in a little embossing paste and just drug it across the cardstock to simulate a few clouds.  Almost every picture I saw of an African sunset had a tree in it.  I did not have a tree so I smooshed my Altenew Jet Black ink pad into my craft mat and used a watercolor paint brush - narrow and flat to free hand the tree on my panel - I am actually very proud of my tree!  I have never done that before and thought why not try it?  I used the lion from Altenew's Geometric Menagerie stamp set.  However, I didn't feel like the geometric look of the lion fit my theme so I stamped the lion in Versamark onto black cardstock and then heat embossed the image with black embossing powder.  I tried to cover the entire image in embossing powder but again I didn't like the looks of the finished image.  So instead I cut the image out with some fine tipped scissors and then flipped it around so that it was a silhouette on the card.  I also had a little oopsy in that when I was stamping the sentiment onto the sun I actually DROPPED my sentiment back onto the panel.  (Note to self:  use the MISTY/Stamping Wheel or whatever stamp positioner you have to stamp your sentiment - it won't drop that way).  Because I was so proud of my hand painted tree I tried to figure out a way to save the card panel.  In order to save the panel, I stamped the sentiment again onto vellum and embossed with clear embossing powder - I then smooshed an ink pad in the yellows and oranges across the back of the vellum.  This helped to bring the sun's color through and gives a way to hide the adhesive on the back of the vellum.  I used a little foam under the vellum to add some dimension and I also used foam under the lion for dimension.  This particular lesson focused on building up the background with ink blending, the tree and the sun.

The second card focused on creating an interactive shaker card.  For this card the focus of the scene is the cake which is actually behind the acetate and the shaker elements.  To start with the I used some patterned paper I found in my stash but ran it through my die cutting machine with the Altenew Herringbone Embossing folder - this really gave an little more interest to the patterned paper then the dots did. I chose this color paper because I wanted to create a piece of cake that would be appropriate for either male or female AND I love chocolate cake.  I stamped the cake with all of its layers onto white cardstock.  This stamp set is Cut the Cake from the Altenew Mini Delight October Subscription.  A cute little set that includes the dies - piece of cake, whipped cream, sprinkles and the word cake.  I used the piece of cake die to cut the window in my patterned paper.  I then cut the word cake and the sprinkles out of dark chocolate cardstock multiple times.  I added the words and the sprinkles in addition 

to some colored sequins from my stash to the shaker window.  Last week I also took the time to hot foil some sentiments from the Sweet Sentiments and Essential Sentiments sets.  The Celebrate sentiment is actually the foiled negative of the sentiment.    I like to foil the negative as well since that gives me a two for one with the sentiment and leaves little to no waste of the foil.  So for this card the scene is actually "in the window" of the shaker card.

For my last card I actually have quite a few photos because I wanted to show you part of the process.  This card will create a scene by masking the image and stamping over the mask - this creates dimension and makes it appear as if one of the images is behind the other.

I chose Altenew Proud of You stamp set and matching stencil template for this card.  To begin with I stamped the floral image onto low tack tape (similar to post it note). I then used my fine tipped scissors to fussy cut the image out.  This fussy cut image is called a "mask". I then stamped the floral image onto my white cardstock panel.  The next step was to place the mask over the stamped image.  Then I stamped the floral image over the mask but offset a bit - this makes it appear as if the second floral image is BEHIND the first image I stamped.

After stamping the second image I left the mask in place and began using my ink and blenders to color in the floral image.  Once I had the first flower colored I moved the mask over and then used it to color the next flower.  And again with the mask in place I ink blending around the flowers - moving it as appropriate to keep the colors where I wanted them.

As a final step I took my Altenew Metallic Watercolors and a water brush to add some splatters to the card and then added the sentiment in black.  By using the masking and stamping the sentiment directly on the card panel this is a one layer flat card.  

And now this concludes my Level 1 courses.  Next up I will be given a final to complete before I can move to my Level 2 courses.

Wish me luck and let me know what you think.